Friday, October 31, 2008

No Place Like Halloweeeeeeeeen....

By Jeanne Adams

The holiday season begins at my house on October first. Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and always has been. Given that, I get to start in September these days, which is when I put up the Halloween decorations. Every room gets something, even the half-bath.

For one month, I'm worse than those little old ladies you see with 4000 Santas out all year long.

From September 30th on, I get to read Halloween books to my kids without any remorse (I do it all year long, by the way, I just get to do it guilt-free for the months of September and October) and we get at least one new one every year.

We start planning the outdoor decorations in September and begin issuing the invites for the annual Ad(d)ams Family Halloween Party - a wickedly fun event where the adults get to dress up and say BOO! Of course, if you insist on coming sans costume, you have to bring something to eat. I get about half and half every year. Grins. We had a Cavalier, a Catholic Schoolgirl, an Elfin Warrior and a Karate Master this year along with assorted other characters. It was great fun!

But back to the books...The favorite new book this year is one by Carl Reiner, you know him from all the way back on the Dick Van Dyke show and from his later work in Oceans Eleven. The book is called Tell Me a Scary Story...But Not Too Scary. It's marvelous! I've read it to my youngest about six times per night for the past four or five nights. We've even read it during the day sometimes too. Bwah-ha-ha!!!

Past favorites have included The ABC's of Halloween, The Runaway Pumpkin, and A Very Brave Witch. You've never heard anything funnier than a four year old yelling, as you read, "RUNAWAY PUMPKIN!!"

Then there's the costumes for the kids. We discuss this at length from Labor Day on. This year we have a Football Player (Miami Dolphins, for some unknowable reason) and IronMan.

For the Halloween party, my darling hubby and I were Biker Trailer Trash. There were people who arrived at my door who did not recognize me. I guess I'm glad about that, since I pulled off the trailer trash thing pretty well!

I put the picture down below. What do you think?

And then there's the pumpkins. Gosh I love carving pumpkins. What is not to love about those fabulous orange canvases? There doesn't seem to be anything you can't carve into a pumpkin. From ghosts to vultures to bad-ass bikers, you can create a pumpkin tribute. One of my "Bucket List" items is to get to the famous Keene, NH Pumpkin Festival. It's one of the world's largest pumpkin festivals. This year's count was 22, 596 carved pumpkins. Check it out at http://www.pumpkinfestival.org/

The other fun thing is the Life Is Good Pumpkin Festivals. Wow are they delightful! Life is Good partners with a local charity to set up twelve festivals scattered in various parts of the country and the classic Life Is Good style t-shirts are in full swing.

And oh...the candy. Considering we've had our Halloween party already and there's still cake, pie, brownies and we're making cupcakes today (Halloween), I probably should be doing at least three hours on the exercise bike per day for the next ten weeks.

Then again, I also bought five bags of candy. I'll give 'em out too. Really. I will. *VEG*

I always buy the candy I like, don't you? This is just in case I don't give it all away to the mini-goblins then I'll have good stuff around. I hate to have leftovers of candy that I won't eat. *shudder* Now that's scary. Besides, it hurts my Scotch soul to throw anything away, especially candy!

(By the way, the picture at the left is our pumpkin effort this year...)

As to candy, my favorites are malted milk balls, tootsie roll pops and tootsie rolls. Jeez, they make me drool. I've got to stay away from the blinking things until tomorrow night. Cripes. It's like they call to me.

I bet your party is fun, Jeanne. My friend Mary goes to one hosted by her brother each year, and it always looks like so much fun. Alas, no dressing up for me. We only get one or two trick-or-treaters a year.

Great post, Jeanne! I knew you'd do a Halloween tribute. Thanks for the great book recommendations. I've been looking for some new ones for the grandkids. Reiner's book sounds good. What's the age level?

Congratulations, Pat, "on the pumpkin" indeed!

We'll be going around with the grandkids. Shannon is having chili and corn bread before we go trick or treating. Yummy, fall is in the air!

I didn't buy any candy this year, so I guess I'll stay at Shannon's for a long, long time.

I love the little kids in their darling costumes, but when the teenagers come around, arrggggh.

I didn't use to mind when they were my students. It was such an obvious ploy for CANDY and they were pretty creative in their costumes. Plus, they got a kick out of seeing that I actually live in a house instead of a cave!

Oh, my, whatever will we do with the Golden One today? Does he know anything about Halloween and trickor treating? I guess we could lethim do the candy giveaway at thedoor. I'll bet the children will be surprised to see him!

Jo, the chili and cornbread sounds maaaahvelous! I love all the kids in costume. I even still ike the teens in their oh-so-obvious ploys for candy.

Reiner's book is great, and my nearly-four-year-old loves it. Even my 8 y/o loves it. The Runaway Pumpkin is cute and is age 2 on up, I'd say. The ABC's are pretty much the same, really fabulous illustrations.

I actually bought two I had to take back because they were too scary. Really weird because they were more adult themed in some ways, with references to things only adults would know. It baffled both my boys and the stories weren't even that good. The other one was a song book and the songs were...unfortunate. Very sicko-humor kind of thing.

That said, The Bear Gets Scared is another wonderful one - by the same author as The Bear Stays Up for Christmas. Totally cute!

Well done Pat he certainly had a great day yesterday with Foanna and Annie West and he behaved himself at the Library have fun with him

Great post Jeanne we really don't celebrate Holloween here in Australia although over the past couple of years I have seen a few kids out in fancy costumes and they do look so cute I never think to buy any lollies to have here if any knock on the door. I was at the shops today and in one store they had a 4.5 kg bag of cadbury treats for halloween I was tempted but at $20 for the bag I thought I had better not.

It is already Friday 31st Oct here and the grandkids are coming for dinner but I don't have any halloween books to read to them but I sure will find something I can read to them I love reading books to them.

Love the photos Jeanne is it hard carving the pumpkins I have never tried something I should try one day.

As for favourite treats I love chocolate of any sort and licorice allsorts. What are tootsie rolls my dogs name is Tootsie and she loves chocolate I am sure she would probably like them

I fear that GR won't be in any shape to cause much trouble for the young ones! My three-year-old grandson and full-time whirlwind is spending the day with me. Tristan, a devoted Spiderman fan, will most likely be using his "powers" on our feathered friend all day! I feel I should protect the GR!! Well, I'm off to catch a few zzzs in preparation for the day!!

You girls must sit on the computers... amazing. Good on you Pat.Today I cleaned my house in preparation for the start of NaNo tomorrow. I have told my kids don't talk to me unless they or someone they know is dying. Do you think that will work?

I'm dressing up. We are doing stepford wives (how fitting it's my last day at the job from hell) I'm gonna be all dolled up, my friend is going to be the disfunctioning stepford with smeared lips and messy hair and crooked twin set, and my other co-worker will be the dame matriarch...

I love the houses that are all decorated! We rent a flat, so no outdoors for us to decorate

My kids are always a princess and a superhero! Go figure!

Uhm, on the carving of pumpkins... we've been so busy this year we haven't had a chance, but we do HAVE the pumpkins, they'll just have to wait till Saturday! LOL

Happy Halloween everyone!

And I'm all about raiding the kids of their sweet tarts! mmmmm.... sugar....

What fun, Jeanne! Your party sounds like a blast! We like Halloween too. Carved the pumpkins last night: One cute cat and one scary carnivorous pumpkin devouring a Jack-be-little.

Tonight my punk rocker and elf/knight will be out, fueling their sugar highs! Sometimes dh and I dress up too. Always for a party, sometimes for trick or treating too. Last year I was Goth Mom. Nothing elaborate this year, though. I'll probably fall back on my long velvet cape and sparkly half mask. It's cold this year!

Here in Finland we haven’t celebrated Halloween, although the past few years it has seemed that the shopkeepers would really like it if more of us did. But this invasion of Halloween has made some people to revive the nearly forgotten Kekri: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Kekri+-+ancient+celebration+to+mark+end+of+harvest+season/1135222832346

Our Halloween turnout this year ought to be huge, because our weather is gorgeous, there's no school today, and we live in a lovely small town that really embraces holidays! Last night we went to our town Halloween party; my oldest worked, and my youngest got to assist a magician in his show.

Today we shall carve more pumpkins, visit our dear Tropical Snow man for the last snow cone of the season, as he'll close for winter tomorrow, and then the oldest two will take off with their friends and trick or treat for Unicef. Thank heavens I still have my youngest to go with. They grow up SO fast!

My favorite book is Little Critter Halloween. And I love Junie B. Jones' Halloween story, too. Our annual movie is Something Wicked This Way Comes; just scary enough not to freak me out too badly, as I am a big coward, and the kids love to point out the lessons on being careful for what you wish for, too. :)

Helen, you'll have to remember to share your pumpkin carving efforts with us next year. Over here there are books, contests, festivals as I mentioned, and even web-jokes full of er, unmentionable, pumpkins.

Hey Natalie! Wow, you're doing NaNo? One of my pals is doing that too, in hopes that it will jumpstart her latest novel. She's been having trouble getting started and figured the pressure cooker would do the trick. Hmmmm. Let us know how it goes.

BTW, just for the record, nothing short of The Great Pumpkin appearing in the front yard shuts my kids up for any length of time, so I have to answer your question with a sorrowful..."no."

Jeanne, Happy Halloween to you! And all the banditas and bandita buddies!

I think this is the first Halloween that my husband and I will both be able to stay home. My youngest wants to go out with his friends, and I know he's old enough, but it makes me sad to think that part of my life is over.

But you did forget one of the best after Halloween things ever...Punkin Chunkin. For anyone who doesn't know (this has become famous around here), every year those crazy people in Delaware get together to see who can create a device to throw a pumpkin the farthest. It's the funniest thing ever to watch huge pumpkins fly a few hundred feet.

Yes, love Halloween as well. Glad to see the weather is cooperating here so I get to see the kid's costumes. One of these years we're going to have to make sure we're in the Ad(d)ams vicinity at Halloween. Looks like fun. Love hubby's tattoo. Where's yours? Hmmm?

Candy - I'm easy to please. I love everything with chocolate, natch, and those mary janes or peanut kisses are good too. I guess the only thing I'm not fond of are the gummy candies - I can lives without those. Hence none in the MacMeans candy bowl. Funny, we don't get as many kids coming round as we used to, but I'm buying like 5x as much candy (hehehe...wonder well the leftovers go?)

Natalie - Good luck with Nano! You go, girl! I'm doing a book signing in Cincinnati that runs from 10 am to 4 pm at their convention center - talk about a long signing!!! I'm planning on taking a journal so I can write in between.

Tiffany - After years of carving pumpkins with the kids, I've resorted to those pre-cut papier mache pumpkins with a light inside. Much cleaner and they don't cave with age! (sorry Jeanne - not the real thing)

Pat - DON"T feed the GR chocolate, whatever you do. The bird goes beserk! Soon all the candy will have little peck holes in them.

Jeanne - I recommend THE WIDOW'S BROOM. One of my favorite Halloween season books for the little one's. Great illustrations, though they're not in color. I painted a picture of the witch for my son's second grade class for their Halloween party back in the day. (My son is 23 now.) I ran into his old teacher a couple of years ago and she said she still has the pitcture - she's retired from teaching, so she brings it out every October as part of her Halloween decorations.

Mornin' Christie! How could I forget the Delaware favorite! Hey, there's also this thing called a Punkin' Chucker - this guy invented it and it's a punkin' cannon. OMGosh, you've never lived until you'd seen a cannonball sized punkin' or watermelon flying through the air and exploding about 100 yards away.

A scary good morning to all of you!Let's see, the chocolate is hidden,the car keys are hidden, but the GR and the grandson are still in wait-and-see mode! My costume for the day will be my usual jeans and t-shirt with the addition of my big, black witch's hat. Tristan, being the Spiderman devotee that he is, will be costumed as the arachnid himself. My camera is at the ready for the evening's antics. The only down side is that thenumber of trick or treaters hasgone down considerably over theyears. We only had about fifteencome by last year! Oh, well! Wecan just hope for more, we are ready!!

Hubby bought the candy this year -- almost all of it including peanuts, which is my LEAST favorite way to adulturate chocolate. This is a Good Thing, because it means I won't be getting my fingers into the bowl.

Also -- my contribution to the 'neat pumpkin collection' comes from my son, who's a whiz at carving those critters. Check my blog to see a couple of examples.

Pat, I shudder to think what The GR will do with what he learns on Disney. Oooh and Aaaah, the monkeys, would be converts to his cause, the little Einsteins could be recruited to supply him with nefarious spying gadgets...I can so see this. He would subvert them all.

Drat Minna! No Halloween? I couldn't open the article link, but I GoodSearched Kekri. Pretttty Cooooool! (Barring that sheep sacrificing part, which I presume they WOULDN'T revive!)

Well, as I said, shopkeepers wish everyone would be celebrating Halloween. Even here, in that small shop where I buy my groceries, they were selling some Halloween stuff.

I doubt they'll be sacrificing sheep, but I read in the paper about how they were reviving Kekri in some county around here and about how they had made some very traditional and nearly forgotten foods, some of which sounded really yucky.

Here's some more Halloween pictures:http://www.offthemark.com/halloween/halloween.htm

I'm the total opposite. I'll be happy when Halloween is over. As a chocoholic trying to avoid the stuff, it's quite difficult. Add in I'm not big on getting dressed up, I don't like pumpkin anything and don't like to decorate, and I'm the Halloween Humbug.

For me, it's just another night. But y'all who get into it, good for you. And good for Pat on the chook. Way to sneak in when no one was looking.

Terrio, I love the Halloween Humbug! That's great. One of my BFF's is that way too. Its not the chocolate thing she minds, its the masks and so forth. It's unpleasant for her and she feels like she just has to endure until it's done. (One more day, Ms. B, and you're through it for another year!)

Jeanne - I should have added, I HATE to be scared. LOL! I do not find that enjoyable as many others do.

Christmas is my favorite holiday and even then, I don't go all out. That would be my sister, she wraps everything that doesn't move in her house in garland. In fact, I think she'd wrap her cat if she could catch her. LOL!

But I also love Memorial Day as it means summer (and WARM WEATHER) have arrived. Gah! I hate to be cold even more than I hate to be scared. LOL!

Anybody else thinking it's getting a little too cold and a little too dark a little too early this year?

Terrio, I'm with you -- I do NOT like being scared. I have no desire to go into haunted houses, dark corn mazes, anywhere that plays scary music. ((shudder))

Jeanne, I need to go to your party and get in on all the fun!! There are things I like about Halloween, but the violence aspect of it bums me out. I don't really enjoy seeing little kids dressed up as serial killers. This seems wrong to me.

I'm also not crazy about the way women's costumes seem entirely focused on sex. There's the "naughty" nurse, "naughty" witch, "naughty" cheerleader, etc. I remember always being bummed out on Halloween as a teenager, because it seemed that every other girl had some gorgeous, sexy costume and I was dressed up as little bo peep. KWIM? :-P

BUT, lest you think I'm a Halloween grinch, I will say that I love seeing the little ones with creative, fun costumes. Not that I make any fun creative costumes, but I love seeing them. LOL. Our neighborhood has parade every year for Halloween and it's great fun, and there are some amazing costumes. My favorite this year was a guy who was a gas grill. Now that's not easy to pull off!

My son is a cowboy this year -- a dead cowboy -- and he is having a blast with his makeup. My little one is a fairy, and I get to be the fairy mama. :-) We are definitely trick-r-treating tonight!!

Jeanne, I'm so glad to see the cooler weather headed in our direction. Myfavorite is the crisper coolness ofFall, not the cold weather of Winter.It seems that the older I get, the more the cold greatly bothers me!!

Hi Kirsten! Great to see that you too have the Halloween spirit. :> I know what you mean about all the sex focused costumes though. It appals me sometimes how many of even the littlest girl costumes are focused on being sexy. SO not appropriate! *shakes head* Then there's the fairy princesses and the wood fairies and the sack of groceries and - at my son't school parade - an oven mitt. Now I would have hated that costume, but this little girl was bouncing up and down like this was the coolest thing in the world. :> Biiiiig fun!

Haha- Pat didn't get the Golden Rooster today, she got the Great Pumpkin! Who comes to the pumpkin patch! ;)Um... Halloween was never very big for me growing up - but I'll be making a pumpkin cheesecake for a potluck with friends tomorrow :)

Just to update you: the FeatheredOne is resting comfortably on the sofa with a cool cloth on his forehead! He is resting quietlynow that Tristan's Dad has come by to pick the little cyclone up. Tristan really gave the Golden Onea run for his money today! We'rejust going to make sure that this evening is a quiet, recuperativesituation for him!

Jeanne, I have to admit I'm a bit of a Halloween grinch... I'm just not a big fan, but since I have kids, it's hard to be entirely as Grinchly as I might desire... I just spent the entire day at my kids' school partying and parading... No costume for me (unless you count my usual get-up--super mean mommy ;))

I'm trying to remember what Halloween titles we've enjoyed recently--Halloweena, by Miriam Glassman was a fun one. And Barbara Robinson's The Best Halloween Ever...

Mmm... the one thing I do love about Halloween--candy! I think I like just about all of them except candy corn (not candy, and not corn!)... Donna, send those gummies over my way ;)

We're having a grand time with the trick or treating goblins,princesses,and Spidermen! We just had a batchof seven at the door! I've got mywitch hat on and the children thought he was one of my sons dressed as a rooster!! LOL!!!

Hi Fedora! I had to take a break from the blog today and go do the parade as well. :> No costume for me either because I had to manage the little costumed one and take pictures of the big boy in costume.

I'm betting the Great Pumpkin would leave you baking supplies and stop back later for a snack

Well, he was going to until he saw the recipe for pumpkin bars on the counter...

Had lots of cute little goblins tonight. One boy was Batman and hit a button and plastic bat wings ejected from his back! I gave him extra candy!

Tried to watch Ghosthunters LIVE from Ft. Delaware....That show cracks me up. They try to entice the spirits to communicate "Don't be afraid, you can make a noise if you want and if you don't, that's ok too"

Well, thought I'd drop in for few minutes to say good night to everyone. It has been a busy, busy day! What with my little twisterof a grandson, Tristan, visiting and the GR also here for the day, it has been hectic. Add in the trick or treaters dropping by and I now have plans to sleep in tomorrow!

The Golden One is snuggled down,resting and waiting to find out where he will be tomorrow. See you all sometime during the weekend!!

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Donna MacMeans, Trish Milburn, and Nancy Northcott will all be in Atlanta for the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Decatur, Georgia September 30 through October 2nd. If you're in the area, stop by for the booksigning. We'd love to see you.

Redeeming the Rogue by Donna MacMeans received a 4.5 star TOP PICK! review from Romantic Times Magazine.

Living in Color by Trish Milburn is now available on Kindle, Smashwords and at barnesandnoble.com for the Nook.